Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (13 October 1566 – 15 September 1643), also known as the Great Earl of Cork, was Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland.

Boyle was an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland (commenced by the Normans) in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he acquired large tracts of land in plantations in Munster in southern Ireland. Moreover, his sons played an important role in fighting against Irish Catholic rebellion in the 1640s and '50s, assisting in the victory of the British and Protestant interest in Ireland.

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Boyle was born at Canterbury on 3 October 1566, the second son of Roger Boyle (d. 24 March 1576 at Preston, near Faversham in Kent), a descendant of an ancient landed Herefordshire family, and of Joan (born 15 October 1529 at Canterbury – died 20 March 1586), daughter of John Naylor, who were married in Canterbury on 16 October 1564. Both are interred in an Alabaster tomb in the upper end of the Chancel of the parish church of Preston.[1]

Before completing his studies, Boyle decided "to gain learning, knowledge, and experience abroad in the world"[3] and left London for a new start in Ireland. He arrived in Dublin on 23 June 1588[4] with just over £27 (£6,727 in 2015),[5]as well as a gold bracelet worth £10 (£2,492 in 2015),[5] and a diamond ring (given to him by his mother at her death and which he wore all his life), besides some fine clothing, and his "rapier and dagger".[3]

In 1590 he obtained the appointment of deputy Escheator to John Crofton, the Escheator-General. On 6 November 1595, he married Joan Apsley, the daughter and co-heiress of William Apsley of Limerick, one of the council to the first President of the province of Munster.[3] This marriage brought Boyle an estate of £500 a year (£93,225 in 2015),[5] which he continued to receive until at least 1632.

Joan died at Mallow (County Cork) on 14 December 1599 during childbirth (the son was still-born). Both were buried in Buttevant church, county Cork.

It is said by his detractors that unlike many of his other close relatives whom he took great care to commemorate, he took no trouble to have Joan commemorated after her death, leading to the conviction among some that his (in every sense) monumental commemorative endeavours were entirely practical (in terms of securing his personal objectives) rather than sentimental (her connections being of no direct use to him after her death).

Boyle was arrested on charges of fraud and collusion with the Spanish (essentially accusations of covert papist infiltration, a treasonable offence for an official in Queen Elizabeth I's Protestant civil service) in his office. He was thrown into prison (at least once by Sir William FitzWilliam in about 1592) several times during this episode. He was about to leave for England to justify himself to Queen Elizabeth, when there was a rebellion in Munster in October 1598, and "all my lands were wasted"[3] which once again returned him to poverty. The Nine Years War arrived in Munster with Irish rebels from Ulster, who were joined by locals who had lost land to English settlers. Boyle was forced to flee to Cork for safety.

This turn of events left him obliged to return to London and his chambers at The Temple. At this point he was almost immediately taken into the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

Henry Wallop then renewed his prosecution of Boyle. Boyle was summoned to appear at the Court of Star Chamber. In the proceedings, Boyle's adversaries seem to have failed to substantiate their accusations. Boyle had somehow managed to secure the attendance of Queen Elizabeth I herself at the proceedings, and he successfully exposed some misconduct on the part of his adversaries.

Elizabeth famously said: "By God's death, these are but inventions against the young man" and she also said he was "a man fit to be employed by ourselves".

He was immediately appointed Clerk of the Council of Munster by Elizabeth I in 1600. In December 1601, Boyle brought to Elizabeth the news of the victory near Kinsale.

In October 1602, Boyle was again sent over by Sir George Carew, the president of Munster, on Irish affairs. He was knighted at St Mary's Abbey, near Dublin, by Carew on 25 July 1603.[7] It was also on this day that he married his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Sir Jeffrey Fenton, Principal Secretary of State, and 1606 appointed as Privy Councillor for Munster and 1612 as Privy Councillor, in Ireland.[7][8]

He became a Privy Councillor for Munster in 1606,[7] and in 1612 became a Privy Councillor for the whole of Ireland.[7]

He claimed to have built the town of Bandon, but in fact the town was planned and built by Henry Beecher, John Archdeacon and William Newce.[9] The land on which Bandon was built was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Phane Beecher in 1586 and inherited by his eldest son Henry, who sold it to Boyle in November 1618.[10] In Bandon he founded iron-smelting and linen-weaving industries and brought in English settlers, many from Bristol.

He ascended to the Irish Peerage as Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal, 6 September 1616, and was created Earl of Cork and Viscount Dungarvan, 26 October 1620.[7] On 26 October 1629 he was appointed as a Lord Justice,[7] and on 9 November 1631 he became the Lord Treasurer of Ireland.[7] Although he was not a Peer in the English Parliament, it is nonetheless recorded that he was "by writ called into the Upper House by His Majesty's great grace", and he then took up the honoured position of an "assistant sitting on the inside of the Woolsack."

The town of Clonakilty[1] was formally founded in 1613 by Richard Boyle when he received a charter from King James I.

Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said of Richard Boyle 'If there had been an Earl of Cork in every province it would have been impossible for the Irish to have raised a rebellion.'

Boyle bought Sir Walter Raleigh's estates of 42,000 acres (170 km2) for £1,500 (£299,120 in 2015),[5] in the counties of Cork (including Lismore Castle), Waterford, and Tipperary and Youghal in 1602.[7] He made these purchases on the insistence of Sir George Carew. Order on the Boyle estates was maintained by 13 castles which were garrisoned by retainers.

It is a mistake to see Boyle's 'empire' as merely being exclusively confined to the development of the 'Raleigh estates': for instance, his acquisition of the entirety of the town of Bandon was not completed until 1625.

Richard Boyle had a substantial residence at Youghal, known today as "The College", close to the Collegiate Church of St Mary Youghal. Boyle occupied the office of Sheriff from 1625 to 1626.

By 1636 Cork had opted to live in the West country to see out the rest of his days. Cork purchased from James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven for £5,000 the manor of Stalbridge in Dorset, which became his English seat and in 1637 he laid out a further £20,000 for Temple Coombe Manor, close by in Somerset. Cork at the insistence of the Howards also bought Annery House near Bideford in 1640 for £5000. The Earl was most delighted with Annery House and the living which came with the estate; he was also delighted that he could easily travel to Youghal from Bideford. Annery House was left to Francis Boyle, 1st Viscount Shannon on his father's death in 1643. Cork had also been left the manor of Salcombe in Devon by his friend Thomas Stafford, the illegitimate son of George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes. Saltcombe, along with Halberton Manor was also left to Francis Boyle, Viscount Shannon and his wife Elizabeth Killigrew. On of Cork's major political allies during the era was Piers Crosby.

The Great Earl's most famous enemy was Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford.[7] Strafford arrived in Ireland in 1633 as Lord Deputy, and at first successfully deprived Boyle of much of his privilege and income. Boyle patiently husbanded forces in opposition to Strafford's Irish program and this successful political manoeuvering by Boyle was an important factor in Strafford's demise. It may be said in defence of Boyle that he would have been quite prepared to work amicably with Strafford, had Strafford not quickly made it clear that he saw Boyle as an "over-mighty subject", whose power must be curbed, if not crushed entirely.

Archbishop William Laud delighted in Wentworth's attacks on Boyle and wrote: "No physic better than a vomit if it be given in time, and therefore you have taken a very judicious course to administer one so early to my Lord of Cork. I hope it will do him good“.

Laud and Wentworth shared, with King Charles I, the same fate as many others who at some time in his life, found reasons to conspire against Boyle: an early demise, with Boyle showing his customary astuteness by putting on a convincing show of politically appropriate response at every crucial juncture. His one serious miscalculation was his failure to anticipate the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Boyle made an entry concerning Wentworth in his diary: “A most cursed man to all Ireland and to me in particular.” It seems Boyle was someone whom you betrayed at your peril, no matter how safe your position might have seemed to be.

At Wentworth's trial, Boyle was a key witness,[7] but he did not take any other direct part in the prosecution itself. Unsurprisingly, he was in full support of the condemnation of Wentworth and wholeheartedly approved of his execution, making a grim entry in his diary " he had his head struck off on Tower Hill, as he well deserved ".

From his children, Boyle expected obedience, although as a genuinely affectionate father he was more forgiving of opposition from them than from his political enemies. Lady Mary, "my unruly daughter" angered her father by refusing to marry the Earl of Clanbrassil, and again by marrying the Earl of Warwick without his consent; but they were soon reconciled and he furnished a generous dowry.

Boyle died in 1643, having been chased off his lands in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His sons, however, recovered the family estates after the suppression of the rebellion.

Historian R. F. Foster, in his Modern Ireland calls him an 'epitome of Elizabethan adventurer-colonist in Ireland',

The Boyle motto is: 'God's Providence is my inheritance'.

Boyle's theopolitical philosophy has been described as 'providentialist' when contrasted with its counterpart which prevailed to the north in Ulster at the time, which, is more typically characterised as Presbyterian.

Such a comparison of these two standpoints is neither exclusively religious nor secular, a factor which perhaps offers some small insight as to how Boyle managed to achieve what seems now the extraordinary feat of gaining strong favour at various times with the leaders on either side of the English Civil War.